George Vasilakos is President and

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

of Eden Studios, Inc., and handles the majority of the day-to-day business of the company.

Career

George Vasilakos founded Imagination Games & Comics, a New York game store, in 1992, after he finished art school. Vasilakos and a few others at his store decided to make their own

collectible card game A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategy game, strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards, introduced with ''Magic: The Gathering'' in ...

, and with input from attorney M. Alexander Jurkat, they formed New Millenium Entertainment and published the '' Battlelords'' CCG (1995) and the role-playing game ''

Conspiracy X ''Conspiracy X'' is a role-playing game (RPG) originally released by New Millennium Entertainment in 1996, and since revised and released by several publishers including Steve Jackson Games and Eden Studios, Inc. In all versions, the setting p ...

'' (1996). Vasilakos was the art director for New Millenium Entertainment. New Millenium went out of business after being unable to deal with its CCG-related debts, and on July 4, 1997, Vasilakos and Jurkat - together with investor

Ed Healy Edward P. Healy is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career On July 4, 1997, George Vasilakos, Alex Jurkat, and Ed Healy announced that they had formed the new gaming company, Eden Studios; they also acquired the ...

- announced that they had formed the new gaming company, Eden Studios; they also acquired the rights to ''Conspiracy X'' from their former New Millenium Entertainment partners to continue the line. Vasilakos shut down his Imagination Games & Comics store in June 1997 to begin working full-time for Eden Studios. Vasilakos and Jurkat were fans of

C.J. Carella Carlos J. Martijena-Carella is a role-playing game designer and novel author. Career RPGs Following an introduction to GURPS in Steve Jackson's Man to Man, C.J. Carella got his start in the role-playing games industry with ''GURPS Martial Arts ...

's work, and in July 1998 they announced an exclusive license to Carella's ''

WitchCraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...

'' and '' Armageddon'' role-playing games, previously published by small-press roleplaying company Myrmidon Press. Vasilakos was the inspiration behind the '' Abduction'' and '' Knights of the Dinner Table: HACK!'' card games. In 1999, Vasilakos was offered a job with Last Unicorn Games so he moved to California to join their office, while remaining President of Eden Studios. Vasilakos stayed with Last Unicorn Games after they were bought by Wizards of the Coast in 2000, and

Decipher, Inc. Decipher, Inc. is an American gaming company based in Norfolk, Virginia, US. They began with three puzzles called "Decipher" then moved on to party games and ''Pente'' sets, but since 1994 produced collectible card and role-playing games. The ...

in 2001. Vasilakos was the art director at Last Unicorn, and retained that position at Wizards and Decipher. Vasilakos and Christopher Shy conceived of the RPG ''

All Flesh Must Be Eaten ''All Flesh Must Be Eaten'' or ''AFMBE'' is an Origins Award nominated survival horror role-playing game (RPG) produced by Eden Studios, Inc. using the ''Unisystem'' game system. ''AFMBE'' is derived from the traditional horror movie depictions o ...

'' (2000). At Decipher, Vasilakos worked on the ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

'' and '' Lord of the Rings'' RPGs. Vasilakos directed all the graphics work on the ''

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film of the same name, also written by W ...

'', ''

Angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

'', and ''

Army of Darkness ''Army of Darkness'' is a 1992 American comedy horror film directed, co-written and co-edited by Sam Raimi, co-produced by Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell and co-written by Ivan Raimi. Starring Campbell and Embeth Davidtz, it is the third i ...

'' roleplaying game lines for Eden Studios. In June 2003, Vasilakos opened a new game store in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...

called Zombie Planet. George Vasilakos helped graphic artist Francis Hogan develop the kid-friendly RPG ''Adventure Maximus''.

Personal life

Vasilakos lives in

Loudonville, New York Loudonville is a hamlet in the town of Colonie, in Albany County, New York, United States. Loudonville was a census-designated place in the 1970, 1980, and 1990 US Census, but ceased to be in the 2000 Census, but became a CDP again in 2020. Hist ...

with his wife and two sons, Theo and Dimitri and daughter Sophia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasilakos, George American graphic designers Living people People from Loudonville, New York Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)